“A world worth wanting cherishes the risks of wildness, and this includes not only the lavish elephants and meteoric crabs, but the stars we can no longer see; the whales hemorrhaging on our beaches; the serene mollusks and coral reaches; 𝘎𝘪𝘭𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘩 as filmed by the Brothers Quay; the eroticized Martians imagined by Clarice Lispector; the Amazon's poison frogs; the Sahara's thick-coming locusts; the vociferous parrots; William Gass's 𝘖𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳; the worms in their legions and the yellow boas; Rosamond Purcell's and van Leeuwenhoek's third eyes and Borges's Aleph; the oracle at Delphi and Gaudi's dream of an unbounded architecture; the necessary nightmares of David Lynch; Borges's incandescent blindness; Prince Genji's amorous encounters; the unstoppable mulattas of Latin American literature; the collages of Max Ernst, his loplop, and, above all, the salutary tradition of a tusked and savage-and, need I say it: 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 storytelling in which the world is reinvented, reinvigorated, and restored to us in all its sprawling splendor, over and over again.” - Rikki Ducornet 

“There is no way out short of a sweeping transformation that would enable people 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 in ways tending to resolve the contradiction between the marvelous and misery. Only by multiplying the occasions in which poetry can infiltrate the large and small affairs of life can we begin to dismantle the miserabilist apparatus. Our task then is the repoeticization of life.” - Franklin Rosemont 

••• 

In an attempt to escape the swinging scythe of miserabilism and spread some seeds of enchantment, readers of The Oystercatcher who happen to be musicians and/or sound artists were asked by artist jesse narens for contributions to an eclectic compilation of sounds and music to be offered for free and to share online. 

The Oystercatcher is an annual anarcho-surrealist publication from the shores of Sla-Dai-Aich in the wilds of British Columbia produced by Ron Sakolsky, Sheila Nopper, and Janice Hathaway.

••• 

Track 1: The Nawrockis - “Horned Ucopia Pog 2”

Horn and percussion: Vivian Nawrocki

Violins: Norman Nawrocki

Recorded live online at Vancouver’s Studio Victoria

and Montreal’s Studio Hutch.

All music: The Nawrockis

Mixed by The Nawrockis

SOCAN 2025 

normannawrocki.bandcamp.com/music

Track 2: Maps Of Tomorrow - “The Logic Of Dreams”

Maps of Tomorrow is Shaun Day Woods

https://soundcloud.com/mapsoftomorrow

https://sixpoints.bandcamp.com/album/lithium

Track 3: ГРЉАШИ - “Shèntàn”

ГРЉАШИ is Bart De Paepe, Ignace De Bruin, Erwin van Looveren 

sloowtapes.blogspot.com

wravenveer.bandcamp.com

Track 4: Hazel Cline - “Meseofa”

"I dreamed about this song. All I knew was the title and that it was being released on a compilation of experimental music, which also included a Scott Walker song. It felt like an auspicious dream, so I decided to bring the dream song into the waking world." - Hazel Cline 

ephemeralityart.com

hazel231.bandcamp.com

Track 5: Scot Bullick - “Plow It”

Scot Bullick, sample based mix - 2026

Track 6: Mecca Normal - “In January”

Mecca Normal is the voice-and-electric-guitar duo of Jean Smith and David Lester. 

After forming around 1983, they released about 14 albums and toured extensively. 

Within their typically direct, but sometimes poetic lyrics about various social injustices, "In January" is an anomaly of sorts, labeled by Jean as a surrealist protest song. It is further illuminated on a page created especially for this Oystercatcher compilation...
https://meccanormalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/25/in-january-as-surrealist-protest-song/

Track 7: jesse narens - “A Flicker (Of Something). With Birds, No Words”

Sounds collected during March of 2026.

jessenarens.com

Track 8: jessyandamy - “alive inside”

jessyandamy is a vocal electronic improv duo with Jessy Kendall and Amy Stacey Curtis based in Lewiston, Maine. "Most of our music made up on the spot, we record all our practices in Jessy’s studio, putting the most-interesting-to-us results in album form. We have aspirations toward our music being included in film and would love more opportunities to perform improvised music live."

alive inside originally appears on the album "oceanalive" 

jessyandamy.bandcamp.com/album/oceanalive

Track 9: Freedom Therapy Duo - “An Ancient Universality”

Recorded by Barndon Carnes on January 12, 2025 featuring Adam Larison on guitar and Richard Gilman-Opalsky on drums and percussion.

Freedom Therapy Duo recently released an album from this same studio session, but did not include this piece only for its length. Find the album here.. 

ramblerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-universalities

Track 10: Songs of the New Erotics - “Sea Pies/Mud Walk”

songsofthenewerotics.bandcamp.com

Cover art by jesse narens with additional art by Scot Bullick

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